Night Watches | Page 6

a prey to forebodings, awaited the
result.
"Well, he looks better," said the doctor, regarding Mr. Flynn.
"Much better," said his companion.
Mrs. Scutts shook her head. "His pore back don't seem no better, sir,"
she said in a low voice. "Can't you do something for it?"
"Let me have a look at it," said the doctor. "Undo your shirt."
Mr. Flynn, with slow fingers, fumbled with the button at his neck and
looked hard at Mrs. Scutts.
"She can't bear to see me suffer," he said, in a feeble voice, as she left
the room.
He bore the examination with the fortitude of an early Christian martyr.
In response to inquiries he said he felt as though the mainspring of his
back had gone.
"How long since you walked?" inquired the doctor.

"Not since the accident," said Mr. Flynn, firmly.
"Try now," said the doctor.
Mr. Flynn smiled at him reproachfully.
"You can't walk because you think you can't," said the doctor; "that is
all. You'll have to be encouraged the same way that a child is. I should
like to cure you, and I think I can."
He took a small canvas bag from the other man and opened it. "Forty
pounds," he said. "Would you like to count it?"
Mr. Flynn's eyes shone.
"It is all yours," said the doctor, "if you can walk across the room and
take it from that gentleman's hand."
"Honour bright?" asked Mr. Flynn, in tremulous tones, as the other man
held up the bag and gave him an encouraging smile.
"Honour bright," said the doctor.
With a spring that nearly broke the bed, Mr. Flynn quitted it and
snatched the bag, and at the same moment Mrs. Scutts, impelled by a
maddened arm, burst into the room.
"Your back!" she moaned. "It'll kill you Get back to bed."
"I'm cured, lovey," said Mr. Flynn, simply.
"His back is as strong as ever," said the doctor, giving it a thump.
Mr. Flynn, who had taken his clothes from a chair and was hastily
dressing himself, assented.
"But if you'll wait 'arf a tick I'll walk as far as the corner with you," he
said, quickly. "I'd like to make sure it's all right."

He paused at the foot of the stairs and, glancing up at the palid and
murderous face of Mr. Scutts, which protruded from the back bedroom,
smiled at him rapturously. Then, with a lordly air, he tossed him five
pieces of gold.

KEEPING WATCH
"Human natur'!" said the night-watchman, gazing fixedly at a pretty girl
in a passing waterman's skiff. "Human natur'!"
He sighed, and, striking a match, applied it to his pipe and sat smoking
thoughtfully.
"The young fellow is pretending that his arm is at the back of her by
accident," he continued; "and she's pretending not to know that it's
there. When he's allowed to put it round 'er waist whenever he wishes,
he won't want to do it. She's artful enough to know that, and that's why
they are all so stand-offish until the thing is settled. She'll move
forward 'arf an inch presently, and 'arf a minute arterwards she'll lean
back agin without thinking. She's a nice-looking gal, and what she can
see in a tailor's dummy like that, I can't think."
He leaned back on his box and, folding his arms, emitted a cloud of
smoke.
"Human natur's a funny thing. I've seen a lot of it in my time, and if I
was to 'ave my life all over agin I expect I should be just as silly as
them two in the skiff. I've known the time when I would spend money
as free over a gal as I would over myself. I on'y wish I'd got all the
money now that I've spent on peppermint lozenges.
"That gal in the boat reminds me o' one I used to know a few years ago.
Just the same innercent baby look--a look as if butter wouldn't melt in
'er mouth--and a artful disposition that made me sorry for 'er sects.
"She used to come up to this wharf once a week in a schooner called
the Belle. Her father, Cap'n Butt, was a widow-man, and 'e used to

bring her with 'im, partly for company and partly because 'e could keep
'is eye on her. Nasty eye it, was, too, when he 'appened to be out o'
temper.
"I'd often took a bit o' notice o' the gal; just giving 'er a kind smile now
and then as she sat on deck, and sometimes--when 'er father wasn't
looking--she'd smile back. Once, when 'e was down below, she laughed
right out. She was afraid of 'im, and by and by I noticed that she daren't
even get off the ship and walk up and down